No jQuery needed.
Some people say using onclick is bad practice...
This example uses pure browser javascript. By default, it appears that the click handler will evaluate before the navigation, so you can cancel the navigation and do your own if you wish.
<a id="myButton" href="http://google.com">Click me!</a>
<script>
window.addEventListener("load", () => {
document.querySelector("#myButton").addEventListener("click", e => {
alert("Clicked!");
// Can also cancel the event and manually navigate
// e.preventDefault();
// window.location = e.target.href;
});
});
</script>